HEALTH CRISIS

CDC Recommends Daily HIV Pill

For hundreds of thousands at risk.

For the first time, federal health officials at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommended Wednesday that Americans at risk of HIV/AIDS take a daily pill that has shown to prevent infection of HIV. That drug, Truvada, is currently used by fewer than 10,000 people, and would likely increase to 500,000 a year if the new guidelines are followed. The guidelines tell doctors to consider the drug regimen, called PrEP, short for pre-exposure prophylaxis, for gay men who have sex without condoms; heterosexuals with high-risk partners, such as drug injectors or male bisexuals who have unprotected sex; patients who regularly have sex with anyone they know is infected; and anyone who shares needles or injects drugs. HIV infection rates in the U.S. have remained steady at 50,000 a year over the past decade, despite official advice to rely on condoms.